Topics

In-depth documentation for specific Standout systems and use cases.

Core Concepts

Handler Contract

The interface between your logic and Standout. Covers the Handler trait, HandlerResult, the Output enum (Render, Silent, Binary), and CommandContext. Essential reading for understanding how handlers return data to be rendered.

Rendering System

How Standout transforms data into styled terminal output. Covers the two-pass architecture (MiniJinja + BBParser), style tags, themes, template filters, context injection, and structured output modes.

Output Modes

The --output flag and OutputMode enum. Covers auto/term/text modes for terminal output, structured modes (JSON, YAML, XML, CSV), file output, and how to access the mode in handlers.

Execution Model

The request lifecycle from CLI input to rendered output. Covers the pipeline (parsing, dispatch, handler, hooks, rendering), command paths, the hooks system (pre-dispatch, post-dispatch, post-output), and default command behavior.

Configuration

App Configuration

The AppBuilder API for configuring your application. Covers embedding templates and styles, theme selection, command registration, hooks, context injection, flag customization, and the complete setup workflow.

Topics System

Adding help topics to your CLI. Covers the Topic struct, TopicRegistry, loading topics from directories, help integration, pager support, and custom rendering.

Layout

Tabular Layout

Creating aligned, readable output for lists and tables. Covers the col filter, tabular() and table() functions, flexible widths, overflow handling, column styling, borders, and the Rust API.

Standalone Usage

Partial Adoption

Migrating an existing CLI to Standout incrementally. Covers using run with fallback dispatch, progressive command migration, and full adoption patterns.

Render Only

Using Standout's rendering layer without CLI integration. Covers standalone rendering functions, building themes programmatically, template validation, and context injection for non-CLI use cases.